The Poetry Corner

Golden Silence

By Ellis Parker Butler

I told her I loved her and begged but a word, One dear little word, that would be For me by all odds the most sweet ever heard, But never a word said she! I raged at her then, and I said she was cold; I swore she was nothing to me; I prayed her the cause of her silence unfold, But never a word said she! I covered with kisses her delicate hand, But she only glanced down where the sea Low murmured in ripples of love on the sand, And never a word said she! I cast her hand from me with rage unsuppressed, And she turned her blue eyes up to me And smiled as she laid her fair head on my breast; What need of a word? asked she.